WHO downgrades COVID pandemic, says it's no longer emergency

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BumRushDaShow (111,039 posts)


WHO downgrades COVID pandemic, says it's no longer emergency

Source: AP

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide.

The announcement, made more than three years after WHO declared the coronavirus an international crisis, offers a coda to a pandemic that stirred fear and suspicion, hand-wringing and finger-pointing across the globe.

The U.N. health agency’s officials said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn’t ended, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. WHO says thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week, and millions of others are suffering from debilitating, long-term effects.

“It’s with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “That does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat,” he said, adding he wouldn’t hesitate to reconvene experts to assess the situation should a new variant “put our world in peril.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/who-declares-covid-emergency-over-pandemic-8b6445735df5218b5d9d6ec32fa047ca?taid=6455059c7d63ee000189dd23


The same ones who were late declaring it.

Article updated.

Previous article -

GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide and killed at least 7 million people worldwide.

WHO first declared COVID-19 to be an emergency more than three years ago. The U.N. health agency's officials said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn't come to an end, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. WHO says that thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week.

"It's with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "That does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat," he said, adding he wouldn't hesitate to reconvene experts to reassess the situation should COVID-19 "put our world in peril." Tedros said the pandemic had been on a downward trend for more than a year, acknowledging that most countries have already returned to life before COVID-19.

He bemoaned the damage that COVID-19 had done to the global community, saying the virus had shattered businesses, exacerbated political divisions and plunged millions into poverty. Tedros also noted that there were likely at least 20 million COVID-19 deaths, far more than the officially reported 7 million.


Original article -

GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide and killed at least 7 million people worldwide.

WHO said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn't come to an end, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The U.N. health agency says that thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week. "It's with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "That does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat."

When the U.N. health agency first declared the coronavirus to be an international crisis on Jan. 30, 2020, it hadn't yet been named COVID-19 and there were no major outbreaks beyond China. More than three years later, the virus has caused an estimated 764 million cases globally and about 5 billion people have received at least one dose of vaccine.

In the U.S., the public health emergency declaration made regarding COVID-19 is set to expire on May 11, when wide-ranging measures to support the pandemic response, including vaccine mandates, will end. Many other countries, including Germany, France and Britain, dropped many of their provisions against the pandemic last year.

Response to BumRushDaShow (Original post)Fri May 5, 2023, 09:39 AM
Star Member underpants (176,239 posts)

1. I take this as - look, you've got everything you need to protect yourself

Vaccines that are incredibly effective
Masks and distancing- you know about this

You are on your own.

The only people still dying from COVID in larger numbers are the very susceptible (older ill health) and the gullible (MAGA - American conservatives

)

marble falls (48,544 posts)

5. WHO downgrades COVID pandemic? No he's on first ...

... sorry. My avatar made me do it. We had a vote and I lost 2 - 1.

On a more serious note: as there are still people dying of it here in Marble Falls, I still wear my mask to HEB, the Post Office and to the Doctor's offices. I keep distance from others in queue.

progree (10,262 posts)

8. My sister caught it for the first time in February, along with her husband, his first time too

they both ended up in the hospital for a week (they are both elderly, the husband has COPD). AFAIK they are recovered.

I know they are both very careful because of the husband's COPD. In San Diego.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143070544#post1

DUmmies are upset.

[Old n Grumpy]

The pandemic is over so be sure to double mask up and social distance 100 feet!

Be sure to keep the mask on at home and in your car as well if you can’t be to careful 

[67 Rover]

Uh-Oh. Does this mean the flu will now be making a comeback?

[Karin]

By all means, DUmmies, keep those triple  masks on over your hideous faces. 

The thread is chockful of the DUmmies reporting that their neighbor's cousin, their mailman, their doctor, are all in the hospital for covid.  As if anyone cares. 

[Ralph Wiggum]

Vaccines that are incredibly effective
Masks and distancing- you know about this

 

You really believe that? Study after study has shown that they were nothing but a panacea.

[Patriot Guard Rider]

The pandemic is over so be sure to double mask up and social distance 100 feet!

Be sure to keep the mask on at home and in your car as well if you can’t be to careful 

I've reached the point now that anytime I see someone wearing a mask, I assume they're a liberal a*shole who still buys into the BS and voted for Gropey Joe. And I avoid them..

[SVPete]

BumRushDaShow (111,039 posts)
...
The same ones who were late declaring it.
...

While WHO was Xi-the-Pooh's running dog in denying for most of January 2020 human-human transmission of what came to be called Covid-19, WHO declared Covid a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/health/coronavirus-who-public-health-emergency-international-concern-declaration/index.html .

Trump declared a public health emergency on January 31, 2020, https://abcnews.go.com/Health/delta-suspends-us-flights-china-amid-coronavirus/story?id=68666037 , https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/01/31/secretary-azar-declares-public-health-emergency-us-2019-novel-coronavirus.html .

Putting these dates into perspective, no one outside of China knew about the SARS-CoV-2 virus on December 30, 2019. So WHO and the US government went from zero to declaring emergency in a month. DU-member BumRushDaShow lashed out in ignorance, unsurprisingly. I guess being told one's fear is unjustifiable does not play well in Prog-oria.

The only people still dying from COVID in larger numbers ...

In the real world, no one is "dying from COVID in larger numbers", in the US at least, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ . That has been true for over a year, and if one compares new cases numbers to deaths numbers, the decline in deadliness of Covid actually began in late spring or early summer 2021.

marble falls (48,544 posts)
...
On a more serious note: as there are still people dying of it here in Marble Falls, I still wear my mask to HEB, the Post Office and to the Doctor's offices. I keep distance from others in queue.

I do not have a need to mock a rando mask wearer nor ask the rando wearer their reason. But my response to marble falls' virtue-signaling and concern-trolling I'll just say, "Keep on ing." The 1918 Influenza virus is still in circulation killing people, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus will never cease circulating and killing people.

[DUmpDiver]

The pandemic is over so be sure to double mask up and social distance 100 feet!

Be sure to keep the mask on at home and in your car as well if you can’t be to careful 

When car masking it is also critical to never roll down the windows.

[DefiantSix]

When car masking it is also critical to never roll down the windows.

...or turn on the A/C, or remove the hose capturing all the EEE-BIL CO₂ being shat out of the exhaust pipe from the rear window. [/environmentalist]